This was written by Rick who blogs at Invest In 2012.
It’s been 4 years into the recession. Once upon a time, the conventional wisdom of “get a degree, find a job, and work happily until you’re 65″ worked fine. But then came the Great Recession, which turned this piece of conventional wisdom on it’s head. So here’s why you should work for yourself, not for others.
- If you want financial freedom, then you’re definitely not going to get it by working for someone else. Even if you earn $100,000 a year working at GE, then you’re still financially dependant on your employer,because if you’re employer hits a financial wall, be prepared for mass lay offs. So basically, you’re a sitting duck, waiting to get fired in poor economic times. You’re living paycheck to paycheck, always fearful of getting fired (and subsequently, not being able to make ends meet at home).
- As an employee, you’re wealth is a linear line. You may start out (from college) with an annual salary of $40,000, and then get a $2000 increase year over year. But if you work for yourself, then you’re wealth becomes expotential. You’ll start off slower, maybe only making $15,000 a year. But your income growth is expotential, assuming that you grow an average of 30% year over year.
- The older you get (as an employee), the harder it becomes to find a job. This is because older workers are generally more expensive, and all companies want to hire cheap labour. But if you work for yourself, the older you get the more valuable you will become because of all your past experiences.
- Don’t you just hate it when someone else (a.k.a. your employer) verbal slaps you across the face? Don’t you hate it when you’re boss starts blaming you for problems that were clearly his fault? I’d rather slap myself across the face than let someone else do it for me. As a self employed person, you have no one to blame but yourself, and no one else will blame you, because everything that you do is directly of your efforts.
- There is no such thing as job security. We’ve seen this from the current recession. Many people decide to find a job because “I want to live a secure life.” But as we’ve all seen from examples around us, getting a job is not the road to financial security. Companies now hire and fire people at will. Most of them don’t really care about the employees’ benefits: they care about their own bottom line: profits.
- All your pains as a self employed person will become your treasures. For example, (for me) the pain of losing money as an investor will become my treasures in the future. However, the pains of working for someone else will never become your treasure (e.g. waiting to get fired, when you can do nothing except sitting their like a duck waiting to get shot).
- And finally, if you work for someone else, your fate is in their hands. If they want to fire you, you can do nothing to stop them, even if you’re a really hard working employee At least if you work for yourself, 50% of your fate will be in your hands (and the other 50% in God’s). Your effort will have a direct reflection on your results.
Rick blogs about his investment results and thoughts on finance.
7 Comments
I would love to do something on my own, still not sure what though.
@Michelle – I’m sure you’ll find your niche. Who knows, it might be right there but you just don’t see it yet!
I actually wrote a post about how I dont want to do this, ever. I might change my mind later in life, but the instability, lack of being able to leave work at work.. seeing my dad struggle through self employment (emotionally and mentally, not financially) was enough to make me want to work for somebody else. Life isn’t all about work but it’s hard to separate work and life when you are self employed!
Report to them what has happened with your husband as well as with yourself. You can also contact the District Attorney in your state as well. They will have compliant forms you can fill out. This seems to be a patter with this employer and it can result in fines and other penalties if there are laws against this type of practice.
This is because older workers are generally more expensive, and all companies want to hire cheap labour. But if you work for yourself, the older you get the more valuable you will become because of all your past experiences.
While I like the idea and find it to be true for me quitting the day job is not for everyone. I know a lot of my friends dont like having to make decisions or depending on themselve to bring in business. Better yet they are happy with the money they make and quitting my not yield the income they presently make. I am big on time and spending more with my family.
For some reason I dont think my life was meant to be spent working for 65 years to hope I live another 25 in retirement.
Well, working at home, for instance, has its perks, the same way that day jobs has its perks. You just have to condition yourself to adapt to the “conventions” of having a day job. Different people may look at it differently but in the end, it will still depend on the person on how they’d accept and acknowledge the challenges that either of these jobs have to offer.